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Iilmar Pabel
King Penguin, a Winged Submarine, Surfaces for a Quick Breather
Enemies find it hard to spot the swimming penguin. Seen from above, his black top blends with ocean's
depths; from below, his white breast melts into the sky. A thick layer of blubber protects him from cold.
Steering with tail feathers and feet and swimming with powerful flippers, he torpedoes through the water at
30 feet a second. Cameras seldom catch his swift flash; this rare picture was taken in a Berlin zoo.
might have been a flying bird when what is
now the Antarctic region was a temperate,
forested land.
Then, with the advent of the ice, the area
changed to desolate waste. But the penguin
stayed on to become supreme ruler. As need
to fly lessened, his wings degenerated until
he became flightless.
Others contend that the wing is not a
degenerate member and that the penguin never
did possess the power of flight.
Another theory holds that the bird took to
flying through water as well as the air, finally
abandoning the air entirely in favor of flight
under water.
Many scientists hold that the penguin is
one of the most primitive of all birds.
In an effort to throw further light on the
question, three members of Scott's last expedi
tion to the Antarctic undertook what one of
them called "the worst journey in the world."
Dr. E. A. Wilson, official zoologist for the
expedition, believed that a study of the eggs
of the emperor would establish links with the
past.
Fighting almost superhuman odds, Wilson
and two companions battled blizzards, moun
tainous ridges of pressure ice, crevasses, and
temperatures as low as -77° F., many times
facing death in their six-week, 100-mile trip
on foot across Ross Island, from Cape Evans
to the Cape Crozier rookery and back.
Precious Eggs Broken in Retreat
There, in the shadows of M1ount Terror,
they snatched five eggs and fled to avoid
certain death in the face of an approaching
blizzard. Two of the eggs were broken as
they made their perilous way back to their
flimsy tent.
Months later the precious specimens were
delivered to a scientist in England for analysis.
But his study did not solve the puzzle of the
penguin's evolutionary history. Even today
the question is not settled to ornithologists'
satisfaction.